Races

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Carmel Marathon: A new PR & a BQ!!

I wasn't particularly confident going into this race. I knew that come Saturday morning, my time would be close but wasn't sure which side of 3:30 I would be on. Because when you're doing focused, dedicated training, you know your goal time and that for a marathon you should be within 5-10 min(at most) of it barring any sort of catastrophe.

I put in a lot of solid, quality training. Every workout had a purpose. I was well rested. I was healthy. And probably the most important thing: I overdressed significantly on every outdoor run so that I would be acclimated to warmer temps. Even if the temp was a delightful 47, I would be in my Nike Hyperwarm long sleeve (those shirts are HOT), a lined windbreaker, gloves, a fleece buff, hat and tights. I would also be very minimal with taking nutrition (save for water/OSMO) so that race day GU would have a bigger effect for me. (or at least in my head).

I woke up at 3:30 to eat a Belvita banana bread biscuit and a banana and made weak hotel coffee to hopefully get things moving. I went back to bed and woke back up/tossed and turned until 5:45 when I got up for real to get ready for this race. 2 main issues arise at this point: 1. There was no shuttle coming to our hotel as I mistakenly thought. 2. I couldn't "go" but knew I needed to.

The first issue was easy to take care of- we drove to a parking lot a 14 minute walk from the start. The second issue began to consume me. We got to the start about 30 min before the race, took some pics in front of the start and then I went to wait in the port-a-let line while L dropped my bag at the start. For high 40's I felt warmer than expected and decided not to use my throw away hoodie. I decided while waiting that even if I started the race DFL, that it would be worth it, and because chip timing.

I waited in line for a while and 5 min before the race started, the port-a-let was mine and all systems were a go! THANK GOD. I scampered over to the start and ended up standing near the 4:30 or 4:50 pace group. As I was listening to the National Anthem and another song about Indiana, a wave of emotion came over me and I started to ugly cry. At this point, I knew I was going to BQ. <-- I just got emotional typing that 4 days later. I never feel confident before a race, cautiously optimistic, sure- because the marathon must always be respected. I've been humbled by the 26.2 before and know nothing is a give in. But, I just knew it would be my day. As quickly as the emotion came I told myself "get yourself together, you haven't even ran a step yet!!"

The gun went off and I shuffled to the start- I got on the sidewalk so I could get into a groove with pace instead of being a jerk and weaving through people. My plan for the race was to take the first 4-5 miles easy, then settle into high 7's until 20, and then hustle that last 10k. I was a little shocked to see low 8's the first few miles, but I felt good, the pace felt easy so I was going to roll with it.

These photos taken just after the start show my big ass grin which was plastered on my face the entire freaking race. I was so happy to be racing a marathon again after taking 2 years off due to injury and life. Around mile 4 I caught up to Erin, and we chatted for a bit. I remember saying it was going to be a PR day and wished her well on the half.

I got to the 8K mark in 40:39 (avg pace: 8:08) and started to lose it. I knew I was on pace for a 3:30 ish finish. I quickly talked myself down off the ledge and said to myself "don't blow it, you still have over 20 miles to run!" The course was nice albeit hillier than I expected. We ran through residential streets and paved paths through the woods- there really werent many portions which seemed flat. I kept cruising and hit the half in 1:45:11 (avg pace 8:02) Again, I started to lose it and get emotional and I had to tell myself to "not blow it."

My darkest miles of the race seemed to be around 13-15 where I started to get bored and felt tired. I was listening to music the entire time, but would skip my "power songs" because I was saving them for a moment like this. Once I listened to "Cant Hold Us" my mood perked up and I was focused on closing this race up. I started singing along to my music at this point. I was getting warm, but decided I wouldn't start dumping water on my head until after mile 20 because if I had done it earlier it would have been damaging psychologically to me, as in "im hot."

I chatted with a guy around mile 18 who said I was doing awesome as I caught up to him. He had just run a marathon a few weeks prior and then started to lament how HOT it was out. I was full of NOPE on this and started to speed up because I did not need any negative talk going in my head. We said good luck to each other and I zoomed off.

I hit mile 20 in 2:40:20 (Avg 8:01) and once again started to lose it because I knew I was getting closer to achieving the goal of qualifying for Boston with an ample cushion to be able to register for 2017. I got myself together and kept running. I listened to more of my power songs on repeat and started dumping water on my head past 21 at every aid station. Since I was feeling so good, I decided to wait on the surge until mile 23/24. I couldn't screw this up now.

I started picking up the pace and picking off more runners and felt super human. I was worried about how anything after mile 19 would feel because that was the furthest I had ran (once) during this cycle. Cumulative fatigue was paying off big time as I cruised up and down hills and was feeling nearly fresh as a daisy at mile 22+ of a marathon. At 23 I started to pick it up more because I knew there was no way I could screw this up, I had 24 minutes to go until I achieved my goal.

Typical. I even waited a few seconds...

I saw L around the 26 marker and started yelling at him "I F*CKING DID IT!" I was full of ugly cry and emotion at this point. As I zoomed towards the finish I saw Pete and yelled something about going to Boston next year. I crossed the finish and was overcome with emotion. I finally did it. I qualified for the Boston marathon on my 4th attempt since 2012 with a near 7 minute PR!

3:28:34 (avg 7:58/mile)9 of 43, AG14 of 262, WOMEN105 of 686, OA

I saw Pete and Erin immediately after and took some pics/chatted with them. Pete ran a 4 minute PR which was amazing!

I was just in shock over this whole race. It went nearly *perfect* and I felt great the entire time. It is amazing when things FINALLY click and come together. Pure bliss.

My last 10k of the race I averaged 7:47 a mile. Insane. My last half mile of the race was at 6:36 pace. I was flyyyyyyying.

We went to Union brewing for some post race refreshment and met up with Jenny and Manny and friends. Later on we went to Upland for more beer and foods.

I am still in shock that I finally got my BQ with a big enough cushion to register for 2017!

Still shocked at the negative split race I ran. It's always been my goal in a marathon to negative split, but I could never do it, until now. First half: 1:45:11, Second half: 1:43:23 CRAZY. My training paid off and I'll probably do something similar in the future.

On the way back we saw the wind farm.

And the Jesus/Hell is real sign.

And we stopped at 18th Street Brewery for lunch in Hammond. We saw Drew, the owner/brewer and sent our Mikkeller love to their new Mikkeller bar in San Diego. I had a few beers and an amazing Cuban sandwich. Check them out!

Since we had a few hours to kill before getting CB, I finally completed my coworker's BQ celebration he created for me "BQ to DQ." (or other crazy sundae type thing). I went to Stan's and got a donut milkshake, but after 3 sips I started to feel sick from the sugar. Made it through 3/4 of it before I was done for the night.

I got some unicorn glasses I saw at Anthropologie 6 weeks ago. I couldnt let myself buy them until I qualified.

And now Im taking it easy because IM training starts next week... I'll probably amend training until I know I'm 100%. 4 days out, I have very minimal muscle soreness and feel great, but know it takes some time to recover from these hard efforts.

The race was well organized and had ample aid stations- seemed like every 1.5-2 miles. I'd consider it again in the future after I run Boston...

Housekeeping:
Gu at mile 5, 9, 15, 21
Salt pill at mile: 5,9, 15
25oz of OSMO is all I drank until mile 22- then some water.

Im still over the moon crazy happy about how this race went. Thank you for all the encouragement over the past 14 weeks.

36 comments:

I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!! YAY!!! What an amazing race! I love that you knew you were going to BQ from the beginning and your biggest hold back was making sure you didn't ugly cry and eff it up. Ha ha ha.

HUGE CONGRATS!!! You inspire me!!!

It's interesting you trained on less food! That is cool that works for you and I've heard that recommended before (for higher lever runners). I think that would WRECK me for the rest of the day! I eat so much! It might be worth trying though. :)

Those splits are AMAZING. And what a faster second half! Dayum! You ARE super elite. Ha ha, wait, what did the Strava friend say?

I agree on getting away from people who have the negative talk about heat/being tired/etc. When I ran Dallas in 2014 I told Gina "We're going to talk about the humidity now then not again!" (in the first few miles) Ha! (Not that she was being negative, I just wanted her to know that hearing that would NOT be helpful for me). And I will have to tell you a story sometime about that and Chicago in 2010.

I know we are polar opposite when it comes to running nutrition- I lose my appetite when I start running (and usually for a few days after a really long hard effort) I read a while back about not using GU or whatever as much during training runs so you can train your body to just push through the tired feeling and I've stuck with it for a while. Not 100% if it makes a difference tho. I also read about abstaining from caffeine the week or 2 before a race and then to have coffee or caffeinated Gu during the race and the caffeine effect is amplified. But I think that could possibly kill me.

I think you could try it if you bring a sports drink that has calories in it- no nuun or vitamin water ;) I forget how much OSMO has in it but probs around 150 calories a serving. So I'm sure that contributes to me not missing food.

Hehehe he said my finish was downright elite :)

Oh gosh the humidity and heat would be amplified so much if that's the only thing on your mind! I'm glad I just zoomed off from that guy after saying the heat wasn't bad at all (and seriously I was unaffected likely due to my heat training lol) I can see how poisonous thoughts could sabotage people even if they trained properly. Mental game needs to be trained too!

OMG - I got chills down my spine reading your recap - especially how you KNEW at the start and all throughout that you were going to do it. HUGE CONGRATULATIONS, XAAR!!!!! You didn't just meet your goal, you went out there and you CRUSHED it!!! I am over the moon happy for you!!!

I am fascinated by some of the training tricks you used, e.g. training without GU so it would have a bigger impact on race day, and purposely overdressing on your outdoor runs. Really, really smart!!!

We must celebrate!!! I hope your recovery is going well - you deserve a ton of rest and relaxation!!!! BIG HUGS!!!!

Thank you so much! It was a bit of a surprise to feel so fabulous so late in the race especially since I didn't run very far in training. But it's definitely attributed to the cumulative fatigue training without a doubt.

I've just learned from so many past mistakes- this was marathon #12 for me. I did the Miami marathon in January in 2012 and died because of the heat & humidity- I resolved to heat train during the winter for all future races because it would be silly to assume a spring race would be cold since most are unseasonably warm. (Also did that for Knoxville marathon). I generally don't like taking GU because they are so sugary sweet so it ends up being ok for me to just deplete on my training runs. I lose my appetite when I run anyways and don't miss them at all. Id like to think the extra kick of caffeine helps me in the later miles. But who knows!

Uh, is someone cutting onions here? Because damn, that recap. I'm getting emotional right along with you! I'm so happy for you - you destroyed your goal!!!

I am SO glad that you felt confident as the race started! And you were obviously right to be! :) Reading your recap, what jumped out at me is just how mental so much of running is - feeling confident and keeping all the negative shit out of your head goes a long way.

Hehe I've read it like 28 times now and still get weepy over it! Thank you so much for the kind words. You're so correct- running is a huge percent mental imo. Even for something like a 5k some positive self talk can do wonders. I was really in a crap place in the middle of the race and talked myself out of it. Had I started obsessing over the "heat" I would have been done. The mental game is definitely something not to ignore :)

Reading about how you just knew you were going to BQ before the race started reminds me exactly of how I felt before the first marathon I BQ'd. I was sitting in my corral, totally chill because I knew I was going to BQ, and couldn't wait for the race to start so I could do it! It is one of my favorite memories. Anyway, congrats on crushing the race and doing YOUR training YOUR way. If there is a lesson for anyone else out there who wants to achieve a goal it is to do what works for you. It may take us several attempts to figure what works and what doesn't, but if we keep at it long enough we'll find a way. Way to keep everything positive and losing the guy who was starting to whine. Glad to also hear that you were able to take care of #1 and #2 on your pre-race list! Congrats again!

Also, way to go with the negative split! Especially impressive given that the temps were rising over the 2nd half. Doesn't get much better than how you did it. I bet 97% of runners positive splitted (myself included). Nice job!!

That's crazy! Maybe there is a little something exta at play during these things (marathon gods I'm looking at you!) I never felt that way before my last 3 efforts which were all within 5 minutes. You're so right about training and finding what works for you. I had big success with a sprinkling of cumulative fatigue in the past but always thought any more would injure me- until this cycle where I went all out and embraced it and gave it a shot, so glad I did. Thank you again for the kind words. I don't know how I managed to fly so much in the second half... But it felt so good. And your splits were practically even!! We did amazing!

I am so happy for you!!! Sounds like a true unicorn race: perfect from the beginning and stays perfect all the way through. I'm so impressed and happy that your BQ race felt like a celebration from the very first mile. Now I'm going to go back and scrutinize all of your training posts -- I'm hoping for marathon like this maybe in the spring or fall of 2017.

Thank you! That's a great way of describing it- as a unicorn race (love it!) Even with the best training things can go so wrong (my 2013 Fox Valley marathon). But even that being said, once you find training that works for you, it definitely reduces those crappy race days :) I found 4 years ago that cumulative fatigue worked for me- but not as extreme as what I did this time around. You have plenty of time to experiment so you can have a stellar race next year!

That last 10K is off the hook!! Way to go on perfect execution of the plan and not listening to the negative talk at mile 18. You more than earned your start next year at Boston! Can't wait to follow that journey, too!! Congrats on an amazing day! You earned it!

Congrats again! You looked amazing at the finish and ran an amazing race so your training clearly worked! I might have to grill you for more details at some point because it sounds like the type of training I would like, too. Cumulative fatigue for the win!

Thank you so much! I felt entirely too good at the end of the race. :) I'm more than happy to chat in more depth about what I did to train and my reasoning behind it. Sounds like we need a dinner date with Emmers!

This is awesome! I got chills reading it, and I agree with Anne. Is someone cutting an onion in here?? When I trained with a coach, she talked a lot about visualization. When I was planning to give birth, my doula talked about the same. The power of the mind is a wonderful thing. You didn't doubt yourself and you knew you could do it. Congrats! What an amazing achievement!!! So so so excited for you!

Thank you for the kind words :) Visualizing is sooooo important for so many things! The mental game could have broken me if I obsessed too much on the heat or the hills or just being tired from running for a few hours- to stay positive is so ridiculously powerful in so many applications of life :)

Thank you :) it was super strange feeling so confident once I got to the start- but I went with it and the result was finally what I had trained for :) oh lord that pesky IM... I almost forgot about that. Lol

Huge huge huge congrats on a superb marathon! I loved reading this, it is so inspiring and what a great reward for all the effort and training you have been putting in. The marathon gods were for sure smiling down on you! I still have done one marathon and am starting to think maybe, maybe I will do another before I turn 40 next year.

Strong work lady and good luck on your Ironman training. I am super impressed with your strong finish and negative split on this race!

Thank you so much :) I have to agree that the marathon gods were smiling down on me :) must be all that good karma I've built up spectating for my friends and stuff over the years. I think you'd be amazing if you ran another marathon. They usually take a few to get the hang of things and get easier (most of the time) :)

Awesome job!! Congrats on your BQ, and the negative splits. I'm always impressed with people who can do that. It's funny how different our perspectives are, I'm from Kentucky, where we have major hills, so I thought the course was super flat!

Thank you! It was so nice to see all the hard work pay off! It must have been nice to have all that hill training under your belt for this one ;) I briefly looked at the elevation chart beforehand and was all sweet- downhill beginning, larger hill later. Didn't see all those rollers throughout the course. But it was nice to have some variety to the terrain to keep the muscles fresh!

This is such a great recap! I was particularly intrigued by your strategy of overdressing on winter runs. I live for cold-weather running and dressing minimally when it's in the 40s, but I definitely struggle with racing in the heat, so this might be something to try in the future. Were you uncomfortable doing this throughout your training (Strava didn't seem to indicate you were!), or was it easy to get used to?

I did get a bit warm, but it wasn't terrible. I just knew to drink more and take some salt to make up for it. I was envious of the folks in tanks, but I knew it would be worth it for the end result. I also ran inside at least 1x a week and that also helped a bunch since it was likely not cooler than 65.

I am thrillllllllled for you! I know this race and experience have both been a long time coming. It's one thing to train for it and prepare ourselves, but hot damn,it's an entirely different thing when it all fiiiiiinally comes together. YAY YOU! So very happy for you. I'd give you a hug!! Haha xo :)

Thank you so much. I still get weepy thinking about Saturday. I listened to some of my marathon playlist songs at work and started crying when a certain song came on that I listened to on repeat for a bit during the race that motivated me. Gah. Now I'm weepy again while thinking about it. :)

This was a great recap to read! Congratulations on your BQ and also running a very well executed race! I think every race has it dark spots but when you've obviously dealt with them well and were able to pick yourself back up which is key! How awesome is it that you felt good at mile 23!!!!! I'm so impressed! I felt emotional reading about your experience at the start line! I definitely felt similar right before the start of the Ironman and remember tearing up in my goggles during the National Anthem.

Introduction

Greetings! I'm Xaarlin, and live in Chicago with my husband and border collie dog, CB. I am an accountant by day and enjoy running, discovering new craft beers, learning Portuguese, eating/cooking delicious foods and spending time with my family when off the clock. I use this space to talk about life, running, and anything else that interests me. Mikkeller Run Club Chicago Captain. Untappd:Xaarlin